Reverse Osmosis water killing my plants

Truckn

Truckn

Well-Known Member
Hello last December I installed an RO system and I used the water for a good time and it ended up killing every plant it touched. I made a thread about it way back then. After that I switched back to tap and everything been good.

My problem is that I always used store bought RO water for my EZ cloner and I figured I would give my RO water another shot and my clones completely suck. They got all sorts of wacky decease going on in them. I was curious if anyone could tell me what could be in my RO water thats janking up my plants. Everything is sanitary the PPM is around 32. The pH is normal some kind of toxin maybe in the filtration. I'm out of ideas and was curious if anybody else had some.
 
hotrodharley

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
Truckn said:
Hello last December I installed an RO system and I used the water for a good time and it ended up killing every plant it touched. I made a thread about it way back then. After that I switched back to tap and everything been good.

My problem is that I always used store bought RO water for my EZ cloner and I figured I would give my RO water another shot and my clones completely suck. They got all sorts of wacky decease going on in them. I was curious if anyone could tell me what could be in my RO water thats janking up my plants. Everything is sanitary the PPM is around 32. The pH is normal some kind of toxin maybe in the filtration. I'm out of ideas and was curious if anybody else had some.
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Salt, dude. The big bags of salt pellets you buy at the store? With RO water you get salt buildup that requires deep flushing a couple times to get rid of in soil. That's all I grow in. In dialysis we live by water. The whole gig revolves around water. Your brine tank in your RO system? That salt goes into your water in osmotic processes to rid the "harder" minerals.
 
hotrodharley

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
Plain old city supplied tap water does suffice. Boil it lightly to keep from boiling all O2 off, leave overnight to re-oxygenate and use. The trace minerals in it will not harm your plants. Unless you live in Toledo or Calcutta.
 
cannabineer

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
hotrodharley said:
Salt, dude. The big bags of salt pellets you buy at the store? With RO water you get salt buildup that requires deep flushing a couple times to get rid of in soil. That's all I grow in. In dialysis we live by water. The whole gig revolves around water. Your brine tank in your RO system? That salt goes into your water in osmotic processes to rid the "harder" minerals.
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Hotrodharley, you are not describing RO, but ion exchange. "Water softeners" work by exchanging calcium for sodium, and they do assuredly put sodium and chloride into the product water. RO is a completely different process. cn
 
hotrodharley

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
True enough. Guess I'm assuming he really has softener when he said RO. RO is so tricky with the carbon tanks, the membrane and the rest. Glad I use tap water anymore. With Anchorage tap water we get bonus magnesium, calcium and copper. Still, with RO we have brine tanks.
 
cannabineer

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
hotrodharley said:
True enough. Guess I'm assuming he really has softener when he said RO. RO is so tricky with the carbon tanks, the membrane and the rest. Glad I use tap water anymore. With Anchorage tap water we get bonus magnesium, calcium and copper. Still, with RO we have brine tanks.
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I have been lucky enough to live in places with outstanding tap water. Interestingly, where i live now the water is either awesome (from a deep granite reservoir) or awful (very hard groundwater), and the municipality blends'em. Some weeks I get 40 ppm, others 240 right from the tap. For soil, little consequence. For hydro ... dicier. cn
 
patlpp

patlpp

New Member
Anchorage water is some of the finest water in the country. Softeners use osmosis but why would you do that in Anchorage? It's such fine water. The best water out of the tap I have ever tasted was in Panama City, Panama during my post Noriega visit.
 
cannabineer

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
patlpp said:
Anchorage water is some of the finest water in the country. Softeners use osmosis but why would you do that in Anchorage? It's such fine water. The best water out of the tap I have ever tasted was in Panama City, Panama during my post Noriega visit.
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Softeners use ion exchange, not osmosis or its reverse. cn
 
patlpp

patlpp

New Member
Yeae I'm probably mistaken. I bought a softener once, big 2 tank unit in the states and I could have sworn it used osmosis. I got ripped in any case. I watered a new lawn with the water and no growth, nada. salt?
 
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